The Washington Nationals is facing sweeping legal action over allegations it duped fans into paying millions of dollars in hidden surcharges on ticket purchases. Filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the class action complaint by D.C. resident Jaymie Gustafson seeks restitution for fans nationwide as well as punitive and statutory damages against the team.
According to the 23-page complaint, the Nationals for years “systemically cheated customers out of millions of dollars by falsely advertising their ticket prices” for home games. The suit contends the team’s pricing scheme centered on so-called “junk fees”—mandatory charges for “service,” “handling and convenience,” and “order processing” that fans only saw at the very end of the ticket-buying process. The suit calls these tactics both misleading and illegal, especially after recent regulatory changes targeting fee inflation in live event ticketing.
The plaintiffs allege the Nationals used sophisticated marketing techniques known as “drip pricing” and “partitioned pricing.” Under drip pricing, a company displays a low base price to lure buyers in, only to reveal the full, higher price—including mandatory fees—late in the checkout process. Partitioned pricing occurs when a seller presents a price in multiple pieces, so consumers focus on the base cost and neglect the true total until the end.
Citing research and regulatory findings, the suit claims these practices can increase revenue by as much as 20 percent for sellers and force consumers to pay, on average, 20 percent more than if the full price was disclosed upfront. "Junk fees" have been under heightened scrutiny by regulators and lawmakers; the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enacted a rule that went into effect May 12, 2025, requiring companies that sell live-event tickets to disclose the total price “clearly and conspicuously”—a rule the lawsuit says the Nationals violated until mid-2024.
The lead plaintiff’s story mirrors those of countless fans, the lawsuit argues. On May 1, 2023, Jaymie Gustafson went to the Nationals Park box office to purchase tickets. She was quoted a round-number price consistent with the team's published price map but, after completing her purchase, discovered her credit card had been charged $34.30—substantially more than advertised. Nowhere during the process was the existence or amount of mandatory ticket fees disclosed, the suit claims.
Online customers faced similar tactics. When shopping for tickets through the Nationals’ website, consumers saw a selection of games and seats with “lowest ticket pricing information” up front—such as $13 for a September 2023 Nationals home game. Yet clicking through to buy the ticket led to a series of screens that only revealed the real total, including a $3.75 “ticket processing fee” and a $4.00 “order processing fee,” at the very end. In one cited example, a ticket that appeared to cost $13 actually cost $20.75—a nearly 60 percent increase over what was advertised.
The complaint alleges that the purpose and method of the junk fees were never explained, and often displayed in smaller fonts than the main ticket price, compounding consumer confusion and impairing price comparison. The online checkout screens also included a 30-minute countdown timer, which the lawsuit claims pressured fans further into completing expensive purchases without sufficient time to digest the fees or read the lengthy terms and conditions
The lawsuit is not just about fan frustration; it leverages new legal ammunition. In addition to the FTC’s anti-junk fee rule, which took effect in May 2025, the plaintiffs are invoking the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CPPA). The CPPA, which is to be “broadly construed,” bars sellers from making “false or misleading” representations about the price of goods and services and requires that all mandatory costs be disclosed up front.
The lawsuit claims each instance of a fan being charged undisclosed junk fees constitutes a distinct violation of these laws, for which consumers are entitled to a $1,500 statutory penalty per occurrence, plus treble actual damages, punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, and other relief the court may find appropriate.
The complaint situates this lawsuit within a broad, ongoing crackdown on "junk fees" across multiple industries, including hotels, rental housing, and telecommunications. It references similar legal actions, such as the D.C. Attorney General’s 2024 suit against ticketing giant StubHub and a 2019 lawsuit against Marriott International for alleged “resort fee” deception, highlighting that the weight of regulatory attention has recently shifted to live-event ticket pricing.
The complaint alleges that live event companies in the U.S. reaped an estimated $7.14 billion in junk fee revenue in 2023 alone. While some companies stopped the practice after regulatory scrutiny, many—like the Nationals, the suit claims—have so far failed to refund past surcharges.
Gustafson is seeking to represent a nationwide class: all individuals in the United States who purchased Nationals tickets at the ballpark, via the MLB Ballpark app, or on mlb.com before July 16, 2024, and who paid hidden service, handling, or processing fees. The suit argues that the class could number in the “hundreds of thousands," given the scope of the team’s ticket sales and the frequency of the extra charges.
Excluded from the potential class would be team insiders, involved legal parties, and those who opted out or settled claims in other ways.
The lawsuit seeks class certification and a jury trial, demanding that the Nationals refund junk fees collected from any affected fans, face statutory and punitive damages, and be barred from repeating such conduct in the future. It further seeks injunctive relief and legal costs, emphasizing the public’s right to “truthful information from merchants about consumer goods and services” as embodied in D.C. law.
As of Tuesday, representatives for the Washington Nationals had not made any public statement in response to the lawsuit.paste.